


Drowned in Moonlight, Strangled By My Bra

by polybi



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Gen, In Memorium, Inspired by Real Events, Real people, Wishful Thinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-13 08:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9114226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polybi/pseuds/polybi
Summary: Eleanor bonds with some new arrivals.  I think you know who they are. An attempt at a memorial.  be kind.  One-shot.Disregard the last two episodes on TV.





	

“You mean, you never saw one...Not even the first one..?

“No...I'm not a sci-fi freak. No offense.”

“None taken, Eleanor. You'd be surprised at how many people went out of their way _not_ to see the first one...All six of em!”

Eleanor Shellstrop was enjoying a frozen yogurt at GPBY with the newest member of the Good Place community, a youngish chestnut haired woman who looked like she was in her 20s. But Eleanor remembered watching her on TV and she looked much older.

“The guy who runs this place.. Michael, right? Eleanor responded with a nod. “He said that I could look any age I felt, and I always felt like I was 28.”

“I should talk to him about that....I've always had a jailbait mind."

Eleanor had always been a fan, but she never got the opportunity to meet her.  She was forward enough to ask the obvious question.  

“I was on my way to LA from London...the heart quit on me.  Kinda like some old lovers of mine..”

Eleanor was in agreement, noting that some of her old lovers kind of whet the same way.  Her new friend asked Eleanor how she wound up there. “Hit by an ad truck plugging Engorgalate...”

“Penis enhancer to the stars.” said the other woman. “As if it ever worked.”

“I know...last boyfriend I had before I got here, I needed a Hubble telescope if you know what I mean..."  The brunette laughed hard at that.  She had a face that was meant to laugh. She looked like she was always looking for the punchline in everything.  But as Eleanor remembered what she read about the brunette, that’s what she did.  In the things she acted in and the things she wrote.

The two kept talking, Eleanor about her friends Chidi and Tahani, the other Eleanor who was supposed to be here while Eleanor went to the Bad Place, even Jason, the other misfit.  And of course Janet, that amazing A.I., and Michael...the closest thing to a read dad Eleanor ever had in this or any other life.  Thoughts of Michael lead to asking how did the other woman managed to slip in.

“That Michael guy said I had one of the highest scores he’d ever seen, whatever that meant.  I thought it would have been about the movies, and he said it was a part, but the biggest part was getting people comfortable with being bipolar...”

She was bipolar for most of her life.  "Mood swings, the intensity, most people don’t understand it...but I lived it, and I just wanted people to understand...”

“They did...I mean..we never met until today, but I can tell you that you helped when I was alive...I’ll just say that.”  The brunette did not need to hear more. The smile she gave back was a “you’re welcome."

But then Eleanor noticed a bit of melancholy come over her new friend, like clouds had started to appear across the sunshine. “What’s up...?”

“It’s just.....just my mom.  If there is anyone I miss in this place, it’s her.  She was the last person I thought about before I woke up here. We fought like dogs, but anyone who fucked with my mom had to answer to me.”

Eleanor had to scoot her chair over and hug the brunette. If anyone belonged here, it was her.

It was then that they heard a rather friendly but animated discussion..about charity or something. Eleanor recognized on voice, that of Tahani.  And both women knew the other voice.  She was blonde, older, hair was made up in a bob.  And as the other pair was talking, the brunette instantly recognized the blonde’s voice.

“Mother....?”

The older blonde looked up, her bottom lip was quivering. Eleanor recognized the blonde on sight, though she looked much younger that she remembered back alive. It was then that her brunette and Tahani’s leaped from their seats and and ran toward each other.

The hugs were long and tight, the kisses on each other’s cheeks and faces heartfelt, as if they were long lost relatives who never thought they’d see each other again. In fact, through the sobs, she told the daughter that the last thing she remembered saying was that she just wanted to go where her daughter was...And that's when the lights went out, followed by waking up in the reception area of Michael's office.

When they finally parted, there was this tiny young blonde waving “Hi” at the pair. At that point, introductions were in order.

“Mom, this is Eleanor Shellstrop...Eleanor, I’d like you to meet...”

“You don’t have to say it...I’d know her anywhere!” Eleanor never gushed. But as she shook her new friend’s hand, she was gushing.

The talked about the daughter’s books, the movies she had a hand in writing, and of course those movies that both mother and daughter got her to swear she would see the first chance she got.  But Eleanor also talked to the mom about her own storied career, in particular one that she starred in 1964. “Nothing pleases me more than to see that self-righteous Pat Boone three sheets to the wind!" The mom remembered that movie...it was a good memory because it reunited her with a co-star she was very fond of.

And there was something else.

“There was a song you sang...I’ve remembered every word since I was 5.” The mom replied to Eleanor by singing a now familiar tune: “I hear the cottonwoods whispering above...”

“No no no!” Eleanor interrupted, and then started singing:

“All I do the whole night through is dream of you....with the dawn I still go on and dream of you..”

Then the mom joined in..

“Your every thought, your everything, you’re every song I ever sing, summer, winter, autumn and spring...”

Finally the daughter made it a three way chorus...

“And there were more than 24 hours a day, they'd be in sweet content dreaming away...”  

And they kept on with that song, really belting it out in the end...

“All I do the whole night through is dream....of...youuuuuuu!”

There was a loud ovation with Tahani leading the way, and the daughter and the mother bringing Eleanor into a big hug...and lots of bows.  They were right, the pair were big hams.

There were a lot of famous people who passed through in the last two months, most went to the Bad Place for one reason, but these two made the cut. As time passed they would make friends with many of the people Eleanor was friends with, but as Mom and Daughter continued to take their bows, all Eleanor thought was maybe they made a mistake with her.  But not with these two.  She couldn’t think of any two people who belonged in The Good Place than these two. 

No one at all.

_Probably the worst I’ve ever written, but as I said at the end, no two people belonged in a good place than these two.  I hope I did them justice._

_Debbie and Carrie, rest in peace._


End file.
